Microsoft Asked by EU Privacy Watchdogs to ‘Improve’ Policies

By Stephanie Bodoni -
Oct 14, 2013

Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) was asked by
European Union data-protection regulators to tweak policies for
its Internet products including Hotmail and Bing search engine
as part of a formal probe into possible privacy issues.

Data regulators “identified a number of areas where
improvements are required,” the EU group said in a statement.
“Microsoft was asked to send its response very shortly,
explaining how and when it would implement” the
recommendations.

Updates to Microsoft’s services agreement, which took
effect last year on Oct. 19 have been formally reviewed by EU
regulators, with the data-protection commissions for Luxembourg
and France leading the investigation. Google Inc. has also come
under fire by the 28 EU data-protection regulators, who work
together in the so-called Article 29 Data Protection Working
Party.

The authorities “are confident that an agreement will soon
be found,” Gerard Lommel, head of the Luxembourg regulator,
said in an interview today. The Luxembourg and French “have
appreciated the transparent cooperation of Microsoft,” he said.

Data protection is currently policed by separate regulators
across the EU. As part of an overhaul of the union’s 18-year-old
rules on the issue, its executive body wants to simplify the
system so companies deal with only one regulator in the region.

“Strong commitment to privacy is a key differentiator for
Microsoft so we’ll always carefully review any feedback we
receive,” Robin Koch, a spokesman for Microsoft, said in an e-mail.

The group of EU data watchdogs wrote to Google Chief
Executive Officer Larry Page a year ago, saying the company
“empowers itself to collect vast amounts of personal data about
Internet users” without demonstrating that this “collection
was proportionate,” and asking the company to bring its policy
in line with EU rules.